ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar said that women with disabilities face a triple handicap and discrimination due to their disability, gender and ‘developing world’ status. The seminar was organised by the National Institute of Special Education (NISE), Directorate General Special Education (DGSE), in collaboration with the National Forum of Women with Disabilities. Speaking on the occasion as chief guest, Special Education Director General Sibghatur Rehman stated that disability and poverty were intertwined. He said that women with disabilities were significantly poor in the developing countries than their ‘normal’ counterparts.
“Unless women with disabilities are brought into the development mainstream, it will be impossible to cut poverty in half by 2015, or to give every girl and boy a chance to achieve a primary education by the same date, which is key among the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by more than 180 world leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000,” the DG said. NISC Director Naeema Bushra said that despite all the development initiatives, the particular vulnerabilities and contributions of women with disabilities had been overlooked. “Women with disabilities are disadvantaged in several key areas when compared to other women, men with disabilities, and society as a whole,” she noted. The participants of the seminar appreciated the effort of the government for securing rights of women with disabilities and its commitment to involving them in the processes of all kinds of development interventions.
